Mac or PC?
I've been a Mac user for over a decade for my personal computer and I am 100% tied into the ecosystem. If I ever tried to leave Apple I'd be screwed.
The US Government, however, is almost 100% on the Microsoft ecosystem, which I think is good actually. It's better for enterprise in my experience.
The problem is when I've had to do some work stuff at home on my Mac (which is rare in my business).
Some software, even when it's made for both PC and Mac, tends to work better on a Windows machine.
For a long time, Microsoft Excel for Mac lacked some of the features I needed in the Windows version.
BUT, I never wanted to buy a separate laptop just to run Excel for the occasional ad-hoc work thing I needed.
So after doing some research, I decided to test out this cool software Parallels.
What is does is allow you to run Windows on your Mac as as a virtual machine. You just treat it like any other app on your Mac. Click on the icon and it runs Windows (you'll need to buy a separate license for that). Then you can install all the usual Windows software you want or need.
Yes, I know you can get open source software and run Windows, but here is what I like about this software:
- It runs like its own app
- I don't need boot my mac up in Windows and then reboot to get back to my Mac desktop. I just treat it like another app screen
- It was relatively easy to set up. I had some minor technical difficulties that I figured out like.
- It uses the same hard drive structure so if I save something on my hard drive I see it on the Windows side of things
- I don't need a second laptop
I don't make any money off the software. I'm just sharing interesting tools that you may want to use in your 1099 career.
Want the full playbook? Check out Going 1099.